NEWTOWN, Conn. - The gunman behind the Connecticut elementary school massacre stormed into the building and shot 20 children at least twice with a high-powered rifle, executing some at close range and killing adults who tried to stop the carnage,...

Most died at the very start of their young lives, tiny victims taken in a way not fit for anyone regardless of age. Others found their life's work in sheltering little ones, teaching them, caring for them, treating them as their own. After the gunfire...

The fallout from an Indiana law that basically legalizes homophobic discrimination has reached the sports world, just as the state's capital is set to host the Final Four.
After Gov. Mike Pence, R, signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act...

Taking a stand against an Indiana law he called "disturbing, disgraceful and outright discriminatory" toward gays and lesbians, Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Monday banned government-funded travel to the Midwestern state.
"We should continue to be...

Spring symposium at Canterbury Community Center
CANTERBURY – On Saturday, May 9, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., The Canterbury Community Center, 1 Municipal Dr., will have a Spring Symposium about Prudence Crandall, a 19th century schoolteacher, who controversially educated African-American girls. Her private school, in Canterbury, opened in the fall of 1831, was boycotted when she admitted a 17-year-old African-American female student in the autumn of 1833. The presentation will shed new light on the...

WASHINGTON Governors in nearly a half-dozen states want to cut state spending on colleges and universities to help close budget shortfalls, often sparking vehement opposition among state lawmakers of both parties.
Republican governors in Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana and Wisconsin and Connecticut's Democratic governor have proposed higher education cuts for the coming fiscal year. Higher education spending traditionally is a juicy target for budget cutters because schools can make up the lost revenue by...

Engagement
STAFFORD SPRINGS - Kevin Smith of Stafford Springs and Kelly Branham of Winter Park, Fla., were recently engaged. Smith, the son of Walter and Mary Smith, graduated from East Catholic High School in Manchester and attended Providence College in Providence, RI. He works for Oldcastle Architectural Building Products. Branham, the daughter of Jeff and Maggie Branham, is a graduate of Bishop Moore High School Orlando, Fla. She is currently a graduate student at Brown University pursuing her PhD....

Wednesday is April Fool's Day, but the subject of a talk at 7 p.m. at The Mark Twain House & Museum, 351 Farmington Ave., Hartford, while outrageous, is no hoax.
Author Paul Fischer will give a free Book/Mark talk about his nonfiction book, "A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power" (Flatiron, $27.99).
It tells how Kim Jong-Il ran North Korea's Ministry for Propaganda and its film studios before becoming...

Can American college students learn that drunk and stupid is no way to go through life?
You've heard reports of recent assaults, abuse and seediness associated with Greek Life on college campuses across America, right?
You've learned about the secret posting of photographs of unconscious women by members of a frat at Penn State, and how the members of this fraternity kept the photographs in a private file accessible only to members of the house itself — oh, and its alums, so the old guys wouldn'...

In a move aimed to expand outreach to alumni, the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to transfer alumni operations from the longstanding alumni association to its non-profit fundraising arm, the UConn Foundation.
UConn President Susan Herbst said the transfer, which will be made over the next three months and completed in June, is needed because the 126-year-old UConn Alumni Association has not been effective enough at engaging alumni, in part because the association charged...

Thirty-four students have qualified to compete in the statewide Invention Convention competition after competing against their peers at a local competition this weekend.
Of the nearly 130 students who presented their projects to judges at Enrico Fermi High School Saturday, 51 were recognized, either as qualified for the statewide competition at the University of Connecticut or given awards from local organizations.
The next competition is May 2 at UConn in Storrs.
The 34 students who will compete on...